How to Draw a Heart
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Draw a vertical centre line down the middle of the page.
It should be vertical and run the full height of your intended heart.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A heart is the most-drawn shape there is and one of the most commonly drawn badly, for one reason: it is symmetrical, and freehand symmetry is genuinely hard. Almost everybody's heart has one lobe higher, one side fatter, and a point that is off to the left.
The fix is a method, not talent. Draw one half, then measure the second half against the first at three specific places rather than drawing it by feel. That is all this lesson is - and the method works on faces, butterflies, vases and anything else with a fold line down the middle.
Step by step
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Step 1
Draw a vertical centre line down the middle of the page.
This is the fold line, and it is the entire method. Every measurement you make from here on is a distance from this line, which is what turns symmetry from a knack into arithmetic.
Watch out Skipping it because a heart looks simple. This is exactly the drawing where it matters most.
Check It should be vertical and run the full height of your intended heart.
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Step 2
Add a horizontal line where the heart is widest.
Roughly a third of the way down, not halfway. A heart's widest point is high, and putting it at the middle is what makes hearts come out looking like spades.
Watch out Putting the widest line halfway down.
Check The horizontal should sit in the upper third.
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Step 3
Mark the tip on the centre line, and the top of each lobe.
Four marks: the point at the bottom, the two lobe tops, and the dip between them. Placing them before drawing any curve means the shape cannot drift, and drift is what ruins freehand symmetry.
Watch out Starting to draw curves before the landmarks exist.
Check Both lobe marks should be the same distance from the centre line.
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Step 4
Draw the left lobe: up from the centre dip and over.
Start at the dip, go up and around in one motion, and come back down to the widest line. One committed stroke beats six careful ones - a lobe assembled from small strokes has flat spots you cannot get rid of afterwards.
Watch out Drawing the lobe in short segments, which leaves it lumpy.
Check The curve should be smooth from the dip to the widest line.
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Step 5
Draw the right lobe, checking it against the left at three points.
Not by feel. Check the lobe's top height, its widest point, and where it meets the dip, and compare each to the left side. This is the habit the whole lesson exists to teach.
Watch out Drawing the second lobe freehand and hoping.
Check Cover the left lobe with your hand. The right one should look like its mirror image.
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Step 6
Run the left side down to the point.
It curves inward at first and then straightens as it approaches the tip. A dead-straight line from the widest point to the tip gives you an arrowhead; a fully curved one gives you a balloon.
Watch out A perfectly straight side.
Check The line should be curved at the top and nearly straight at the bottom.
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Step 7
Run the right side down and make sure it meets at the same point.
Both sides must arrive at exactly the same spot on the centre line. If they miss each other, move the LINE rather than the point - a heart with a blunt or forked tip is instantly visibly wrong.
Watch out Two sides meeting slightly off the centre line.
Check The tip should be a single sharp point on the centre line.
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Step 8
Turn the drawing upside down and check it.
Rotating the page stops your brain reading 'heart' and makes it see shapes, so any asymmetry becomes obvious. Fix whatever jumps out now, while the lines are still light. This trick works on every drawing you will ever make.
Watch out Skipping the check and finding the error after inking.
Check Upside down, both halves should still look the same.
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Step 9
Pick a light direction and shade the far side.
A heart is a rounded solid, so one side is lit and the other is not, with the darkest band just inside the edge rather than at it. Lay the strokes in one direction and build up in passes rather than scrubbing.
Watch out Shading right up to the outline, which flattens it.
Check There should be a thin lighter strip between your shading and the edge.
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Step 10
Add a highlight on the lit lobe and a shadow in the dip.
One small highlight, off-centre, on the lobe nearest the light. Then a soft dark note in the dip between the lobes, because that crevice is in shadow from every direction. Those two marks do most of the three-dimensional work.
Watch out A big glossy highlight, which reads as plastic.
Check One small highlight, and a visible dark note in the dip.
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Step 11
Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.
This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.
Watch out Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.
Check The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
This is the symmetry lesson, and symmetry is really a lesson about measuring. The specific habit - draw one side, then check the other against it at named points rather than eyeballing the whole thing - is the same habit that later makes faces look like the person and not like a cousin.
It also teaches the upside-down check, which is the single most useful self-correction tool a beginner can learn. Rotating the page stops your brain reading the drawing as a symbol and forces it to see the shapes, which is why errors leap out.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
Anything at all. A finger on a phone screen is fine. On paper, keep the centre line light - it comes off at the end and you will be sorry if you have engraved it.
If it's going wrong
If one side is fatter, you drew the second half by feel instead of measuring. Check three points against the first half: the top of the lobe, the widest point, and the halfway mark down to the tip.
If the top looks flat, your two lobes are too far apart. They should very nearly touch at the centre dip.
Turn the paper upside down when you think it is finished. Errors in symmetry that were invisible the right way up jump out immediately - and this trick works on every drawing you will ever make.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- Why is one side of my heart fatter?
- You drew the second half by feel. Measure it against the first at three points: lobe top, widest point, and halfway to the tip.
- How do I start a heart?
- With a vertical centre line and a horizontal line where the lobes will be widest. Everything is measured from those two.
- Why does the top look flat?
- The lobes are too far apart. They should almost meet at the dip in the middle.
- Where does the point go?
- Exactly on the centre line. An off-centre point is the fastest way to make a heart look wrong even when the lobes are perfect.
- Should the sides be straight or curved?
- Slightly curved inward, then straightening as they run to the point. Perfectly straight sides read as an arrowhead.
- How do I check if it is symmetrical?
- Turn it upside down. Errors you could not see the right way up become obvious, on this and on every other drawing.
- Do I need to shade it?
- The last three steps do, and they take a minute. A shaded heart looks like an object; an outlined one looks like a symbol.
- What should I draw after this?
- The butterfly. Same fold-line method, more interesting shape.